Bedtime reading of Seven Days in Tibet, about two German fugitives who escaped from a British 'enemy alien' prison camp in India during the waning years of the Second World War and their subsequent exploits trekking determinedly on to Tibet with the intention of seeing the holy city of Lhasa, serves to remind me yet again that the natural world presents its elemental geological and seasonal weather impediments to human intention.

And then of course there's little comparison to our little corner of the world with the winter forest we enter daily to face the weather elements, our home and comfort a mere stone's throw distant. Although the Himalayas are uniquely powerful in their majesty and height, we make do with the green presence of the ravine adjacent our home, inviting us to daily merge however briefly with nature, in all seasons of the year.

That spring is on the cusp of really getting its tentatively slender foot through the door that winter has jammed shut in the hope of delaying its departure and spring's entrance, is a real promise, for the near future of its sojourn here is now undeniable. Yesterday's sun brilliantly warming the atmosphere and the slight aspect of slowly receding snow is a slam-dunk right in time for the Spring Equinox.

And to match the entrance however hesitant of the changing elements, the collective mood of the dogs rambling through the forest trails was beyond upbeat. They all seem infused with a renewed enthusiasm for life. Its as though they sense an oncoming change and are beside themselves with the joyous intention of welcoming its entrance.

And at the very same time they love winter. They enjoy the snowy expanses of the forest floor, the cool and refreshing wetness of new snow to relish and roll in, to taste and to fluff about wthin as they tussle with one another. From long experience we know that as the snow recedes and when there's little of it left, dogs tend to gather toward it, as though mournfully sending it off until the following winter.

Yesterday for some odd reason, the ravine burst with the presence of people out with their dogs. We'd see no one and then suddenly a dog would be there as though it leaped out of nowhere, and its presence invariably excited Jackie and Jillie to the challenge of the chase. One encounter after another took place with Jillie in particular hot after the tail of one friend or another and Jackie pulling up the rear.

Their rambunctious exuberance is hilarious beyond words. Leaving us in wonder at their energy, their zest for life, their celebration of the landscape and the seasons. In short, acting out unmistakably what we humans feel in the expectation of winter departing for another season to enter in its natural allotted time. Visions of bright green shoots making their way out of the thawed forest floor dance in my head, in clear memory of the trees suddenly bursting into a halo of fresh, sparkling green.